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Public Transit in Providence

AriPVD

By AriPVD
in Providence

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TheAnk Hamlet

TheAnk

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I will say this though.. There has been a steady increase in people commuting to Boston from PVD. Hopefully that was a result of people living in PVD because its livable, and not so much as it was cheaper..

basachs, would you agree the amount of people on the train has increased? What about you, Frankie The Link

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mental757 Burg

mental757

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I always ask the conductors how the PVD runs have been doing since they expanded service last year and they all say that across the board, more and more people get on/off in PVD. I can't wait until the train drops down to the airport - although I don't commute to BOS (or PROV), I do business in both cities on occasion and am a sports fan regular to Red Sox and Bruins' games (and I refuse to drive).

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basachs Burg

basachs

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I will say this though.. There has been a steady increase in people commuting to Boston from PVD. Hopefully that was a result of people living in PVD because its livable, and not so much as it was cheaper..

basachs, would you agree the amount of people on the train has increased? What about you, Frankie The Link

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Pseudo_Work Hamlet

Pseudo_Work

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I will say this though.. There has been a steady increase in people commuting to Boston from PVD. Hopefully that was a result of people living in PVD because its livable, and not so much as it was cheaper..

basachs, would you agree the amount of people on the train has increased? What about you, Frankie The Link

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runawayjim Metropolis

runawayjim

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My money (no pun intended) is on livability, considering the range of cities that have taken notice of Providence, and the number of friends I've had here to visit who've loved it. Of course, cheaper helps a lot too, I'm sure. And I think it's fine to exploit that for the time being, but given that Providence <i>is</i> livable, I see comparative cheapness as a stepping stone, and not much more.
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TheAnk Hamlet

TheAnk

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I guess what I meant by cheaper was... Single family housing prices should decline.. People priced out of Boston suburbs broadened their horizons to include PVD as a viable "mini-Boston" "suburb", meaning.. You can live in PVD commute and get best of both worlds.. I would assume that most people broadened their view due to being priced out.

Generally in down real estate markets, rents rise.. Eventually, higher Providence rent may lessen the appeal to living here as rents fall in burb areas to be in line..

Sooner or later single family suburb owners will realize that a 300k single family house can only rent for say $1200 yet their mortgage payment is $2200.. Rational behavior would be to rent.. Eventually, I assume, more people will rent, driving up rent in rental areas but down in ownership areas due to price dips, lessening the ecomonic benefit of PVD vs the burbs..

Lot of assumptions here.. Who knows really.. Its interesting to me though

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Cotuit Megalopolis

Cotuit

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I think livability is the true key to people living here. When talking about "the Boston people" we're talking about urbanites, rather similar to the lot of us, who are looking for an affordable urban experience in the pre-war model. There are plenty of Mass. and RI suburbs that are cheaper than Boston and Providence (realistically, the cheapest parts of Providence are not where "the Boston people" are going to look to live, so lets overlook those areas for a moment). There are also plenty of cities across the country that are cheaper than Boston and Providence (and I'm talking all around cheaper, housing costs, living costs, taxes...), but few are the pre-war type cities these "Boston people" want. Pre-war type cities being Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Fran, DC... Chicago and Philly may be on par with us in the affordability list right now, but the others are pretty pricey. So if you are in Boston, you don't want to leave New England necessarily, and you're looking for an urban experience similar to Boston where are you gonna go?

It's the price issue that gets "the Boston people" to think about leaving Boston in the first place, and it's Providence's affordability relative to the rest of the cities in its class (and you don't need to completely uproot your life and move to the Midwest, you can keep your job for example) that gets them to consider us. It is the fact that, forgive me, we are not Hartford or Worcester that keeps them interested. We have excellent theatre, restaurants, (getting better) shopping, a comfortable size, proximity to beaches/skiing/what-have-you. If we didn't have those livability things going for us, "the Boston people" would probably be looking harder at Philadelphia or Chicago.

Realistically, most people would be perfectly happy to live in a ranch on a cul-de-sac, so we need something special to attract the people for whom that is not acceptable.

Now, once people are here, our livability has to keep them. Sure the restaurants and theatre and WaterFire and such are nice to the visitor, but what happens when you live here? Does the snow get plowed (do the sidewalks get shoveled, urbanites like to walk), do the buses run on time, are pot holes filled, do the police respond to complaints..?

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mental757 Burg

mental757

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once the likes of H2Oplace, Westin II, Capital Cove and the slew of mill renovations are complete, coupled with the current housing/real estate market, I'd argue that condo prices in Providence will dip. I don't think it will be huge, but I'd describe it as getting even more affordible than it is right now...

The upcoming mass-transit improvements (the ferry service to newport is doing well, CR to the airport and Wickford in 2010, and then beyond to Kingston/URI and Westerly) will make Providence living even more attractive to the "Boston people" too. RIPTA's vision seems to only make things there better as well.

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